Review by Frank Plowright
Well god help the American audience here as John Allison reverses the usual cross-Atlantic cultural imperialism of comics by having the second of four stories concern cricket. And not just in passing, but a full-on immersion in what’s usually England’s sedentary summer pastime. Are you American? Well, Max Sarin’s from Finland and she manages to draw the comedy just fine, but just for you: one team bats while the other catches, and you’ll just have to research or ignore the finer points of what’s surely the nuttiest game of cricket ever to feature in comics. What a treat it is, and it features one shocker of an ending.
This is the penultimate Giant Days collection, and the story arc followed when Daisy, Esther and Susan first began university in Sheffield three years previously is coming to a natural close. Final essays are due, and there has to be consideration of what follows university. Esther has been the most demonstrative character throughout, and the opening chapter concerns her having the chickens come home to roost as she does everything possible to delay writing her final paper. It’s a well observed comedy of utterly unreasonable behaviour combined with desperation.
McGraw is the centrepiece of a finely considered arc in which he has to confront what he’s always feared. It’s a sensitive subject, and Allison treats it with all due respect while the madness continues around McGraw, as this is comedy after all. While other characters have their moments in Volume Thirteen, as always, when she appears Esther is the vortex to which all others are drawn. The final chapter here concerns her interview with the Shanghai and Scunthorpe Banking Corporation. When you don’t really care, such things are trivial appetisers in pursuit of greater enjoyment, and Allison drags Esther from bank to death metal club to an author’s pied-á-terre (to use the phrase Ken Lord surely would if not referring to his Metropolitan bolthole).
Sarin’s cartooning is, as ever, perfect. Wild exaggeration combines with personalities that ooze off the page placed in simple, but effective backgrounds. Would you want Giant Days any other way? If that is the case, lest we forget, Allison’s also a decent cartoonist, and draws much of the opening chapter very nicely.
Giant Days is so funny that the broad emotional range in every collection perhaps doesn’t occur, yet it’s the undercurrent that raises the personalities an extra dimension and makes for such a rewarding experience. Bring on the finale in Volume Fourteen.
